A Little Something Special
A Little Something Special is a comic book story created by Don Rosa in 1997 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Scrooge McDuck's first appearance in Carl Barks's Christmas on Bear Mountain in 1947. Plot Scrooge is informed that next week, Duckburg is celebrating the 50th anniversary of when he first arrived there, and he wonders why anyone would care when he arrived. Donald Duck then tells him that the Golden Jubilee celebration includes a contest to find the best suggestion for the perfect gift for Scrooge for a million dollar prize. Scrooge is not at all keen on the idea, and refuses to admit to Donald or Huey, Dewey, and Louie what his desire would be. Meanwhile, the Beagle Boys visit Gyro Gearloose, claiming to have reformed and offering to pay him to build a giant suction device that they claim they will be using to harvest oranges; in addition to this, they buy a bike-saucer using money supplied in bags baring the initials "F.G." (which they say is a federal grant). Meanwhile, Magica De Spell uses money from the same supplier (she claims she got it from her Fairy Godmother) to purchase a projecto-gem, a transmutation wand, and some global-transport dust. She then uses the last of those to teleport to meet with the Beagle Boys and the money supplier, Flintheart Glomgold; they have all teamed up to take down Scrooge at the celebration and achieve their own goals. At the day of the Golden Jubilee, Scrooge reluctantly takes part, leaving Donald in charge of guarding the Money Bin. Shortly, Donald gets a visit from the Beagle Boys disguised as his family members and grows suspicious of them. Down at the festival, Huey notices that the host is actually Glomgold in disguise (by looking at his shadow) and tells it to Scrooge, who realizes that Magica is in league with him. He and the boys rush back to the Bin and collide with Magica interrupting her magic and breaking her transmutation, which wears off the Beagles Boys' disguises. One of the Beagles then steals the security grid key from Miss Quackfaster, allowing them to use the invention they had Gyro build to tear open the Money Bin and suck out all of Scrooge's money. Immediately following this, the villains all escape into the suction machine themselves, with Scrooge following behind. Down below, Scrooge finds himself in the remains of the original Duckburg, which has since gone underground when the city's new construction went above the original street level. He soon finds the villains celebrating their success in Coot's Emporium along with the mastermind behind the scheme, Blackheart Beagle. Scrooge breaks in and figures out that Blackheart is planning to transport the money out through the abandoned subway tunnels, Blackheart says he's going to make sure nobody bothers to follow them by blowing up Duckburg. The Beagles continue loading the cash onto their train and leave Magica to guard Scrooge. Scrooge finds old telephone lines he had installed 47 years ago, and starts kicking at them in morse code. Back up above at the festival site, Donald rallies the citizens into helping find and rescue Scrooge; when the nephews try to call Junior Woodchuck Headquarters, they pick up Scrooge's morse code message and translate it. Recognizing Coot's Emporium as her father's general store, Grandma Duck leads them there. Back underground, Magica gloats to Scrooge that she now has the Number One Dime, but Scrooge tells her her plan is flawed no that he no longer rich and offers a suggestion in return for his dime. Soon after, as Blackheart starts gloating to Scrooge himself, Donald and the nephews ambush him, allowing Scrooge to switch tracks so that the train plunges off a weak track down into the sewers. Blackheart flees, escaping on the bike saucer that his grandsons bought from Gyro. Leaving Donald and the boys behind to disarm Blackheart's explosives, Scrooge snags onto Blackheart's escape vehicle, making him to crash onto the statue of Cornelius Coot. Blackheart finally pushes the button on his detonator, but by this time, Donald has disarmed the bomb, rendering it useless. Blackheart then attempts to escape on his bike saucer, swearing that he'll return, but Gladstone Gander manages to help by asking the police to put a reward on Blackheart's head; a lucky wind then comes from Gladstone and throws Blackheart off course, getting him snagged in a banner and dropping him at the feet of the police. Elsewhere, the other villains climb out of the sewers. Magica then transports herself and the Beagle Boys to the Valley of the Limpopo, where they get to work robbing Glomgold's Money Bin, much to Glomgold's dismay. A few days later, just as things are returning to normal in Duckburg, Scrooge gets a surprise visit from Glittering Goldie, which Donald and the others had planned for before the contest was even announced. Goldie says she was brought here to give Scrooge "a little something... special" and then promptly gives him a kiss, which he initially doesn't seem to like. As soon as she leaves, though, Scrooge sighs happily to himself, for seeing her again was what he really desired the whole time. Notes *Ludwig Von Drake makes a cameo sitting next to Gyro and Little Helper on page 8; this marks his second and last appearance in any story by Don Rosa (the other being a one-panel cameo in "The Pied Piper of Duckburg"). External links *[http://coa.inducks.org/story.php?c=D+96325 A Little Something Special] at the INDUCKS Category:Uncle Scrooge comic stories Category:Comic stories Category:Anniversary productions